Easy Ways To Keep Kids Busy On Car Journeys

Paint a large-ish (not too big that it can't fit on little laps!) tray with magnetic paint. Tippex on some white marking for roads.

The magnetic paint will help keep the cars stuck to the tray, so they don't get lost and you won't have to fumble behind your seat for them every time you swerve a corner.

Pro tip: If you draw the roads on with chalk, it can be wiped cleaned and used for magnetic letters and/or chalk drawings too.

You can create this addictively fun game from scratch. Later Gator has free templates available to download, print out, and make yourself. All you need is paper, a bit of cardboard, some glue, and a thumbtack.

Really useful for coordinating toilet stops too.

Stuff it full of car-friendly supplies that change with each journey. You can use anything from small toys and colouring books, to activity sheets and short stories.

By making it an exciting mystery each time, your kids will look forward to seeing it every time they have a car journey.

You can use a safety pin to attach the threads to the seat in front, thus stopping it from becoming dropped.

NB: Do NOT include beads, unless you want to find them in every tiny crevice of your car forever more.

Then they can all sing along together without arguing.

Plan stop offs at fun places every hour. These places don't have to be ultra-cool or expensive. A new park is exciting, unchartered territory when you're small!

Older children would never say no to a service station stop off – if your budget allows.

From connect the dots to fun illustrative maps, there's a host of great resources available on the web to print out and take with you on your journey.

Either get everyone to write down a question and put them in a hat, or find a website that does kid-friendly versions.

Spies wear sunglasses and are very quiet… They also use decoder wheels to send each other secret messages. With printable cypher wheels, they can then write and decipher messages too and from each other.

You can also give them a list of "top secret" clues to look out for – like a field full of sheep, two red cars next to each other or a man in a hat. The first person to tick off the list of clues wins!

A (plastic) magnifying glass will also keep them entertain for a little while.

Draw or print out blank bingo cards and then fill them with things you might see on a car journey – traffic lights, a big lorry, a supermarket truck, etc.

Make each card different so that the kid that gets a complete row crossed off first is the winner.

This is a loud-ish word game – just be warned!

The first person says, "The minister's cat is a [word beginning with A] cat."

The second person continues, "The minister's cat is a [word beginning with B] cat."

And so on, until you go through the whole alphabet. If someone can't think of a word, the game starts over from A!